36 AUGUST <strong>2007</strong>
avi on recordThe Taming ofthe ShrewdBy RaviSomeone is trying to sell mesomething almost every time Iturn around, and I’m beginningto resent it! Billboards blocklandscapes, sports arenas bearFortune 500 company names,professional basketball pointsare squeezed in between sponsorpromotions, and gas stationpumps talk to me (I’ll bet theybreak off those little trigger lockson the nozzles just to keep us infront of the miniature televisionscreens). It’s rare I can even usea urinal without facing an ad!Now it’s happening in myown living room. TiVo, DVR,and other commercial-skippingenablers have left televisionnetworks scrambling to crosspromoteshows and bring inad revenue through alternativemethods. Last season, ABC’sDancing With the Stars and talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel tradedplugs and appeared on eachother’s shows, and Stars’ contestantBilly Ray Cyrus regularlypromoted Hannah Montana,which just happens to be onDisney—ABC’s parent company.As if we wouldn’t notice!Then there is product placementin television and films.Companies pay big bucks forthis prime cross-marketingopportunity. I watched the film<strong>Music</strong> & Lyrics recently andevery time Hugh Grant sat atthe piano, “Baldwin” was withinthe boundaries of my screen. Ofcourse, Grant picked up a fewGibson guitars as well. While thiswas painfully obvious to me, itwas also logical and unobtrusivegiven the scenario of the film.However, I feel like I’m beingmanipulated when productsappear to be forced into programming.Extreme Makeover: HomeEdition recently featured a sick12-year-old girl whose familycould not afford a suitable homeconsidering the emotional and financialdrain caused by the largehole in her heart—a “pre-existing”condition according to theinsurance company, and thereforenot covered. I didn’t actuallysee or hear her play guitar on theshow, but she had an acoustic onwhich Ty Pennington, the show’shost, played part of a song whileshe sang.Sure enough, the little girl’sroom in the new house wasstocked with Gibson guitars—the logo proudly displayed inmultiple places for the camera’seye to catch. There was even aGibson poster on the wall. It feltlike an infomercial for a moment,especially when Ty thanked Gibsonon air. Certainly not a “softsell,” but one has to hand it toHenry Juszkiewicz for being aggressiveand bold in promotinghis brand. On a more personalnote, it bugs me that most “momand pops” won’t benefit—themajor exception being GuitarCenter’s new mom and pop, BainCapital. I just hope the little girlactually plays and that it wasn’tpurely “placing” a product.So maybe I have become acynic when it comes to marketing,but I am surely not alone.Consumers are targeted all daylong with shrewd advertisingtactics, resulting in increasedoverall skepticism about marketingclaims and decreased trustin anyone trying to close a deal.Even on a local level, standardpractices start to feel manipulative.For example, “regular”versus “our” price is pretty mucha “cat out of the bag,” especiallysince the Internet exposes suchcharades. No one pays list priceand everyone knows it, so “our”price should just be the price…period. A sporting goods chainstore had some exercise equipmenton “sale.” I asked the salesmanhow long the sale wouldlast and he said that it was goingon indefinitely (the phrase “if itdoesn’t make sense, it isn’t true”came to mind). I pressed furtherand he confessed that it was actuallythe regular price but thatthey just marked it with a “sale”tag. I bought the same thingelsewhere for even less…and itwasn’t “on sale.” My wife and Irecently stayed at a nice hotelfor our anniversary and withsmiles and congratulations theyupgraded us to the “concierge”floor. However, no “concierge”amenities (evening cocktails,breakfast, newspaper, etc.)were available to us because webooked using a AAA rate. Thereis nothing like an empty gift tomake a customer happy!Perhaps my tone is startingto resemble that of AndyRooney (and by the way, I’m nota couch potato despite all theseTV references), but whateverhappened to simply doing honest,straight-forward business? Ilook forward to the day when Ican inherently trust the majorityof people in sales. Until then, Iwill rely on return and pricematchpolicies to secure almostany purchase I make. If at leastone of those isn’t offered, I’mprobably not buying. One wayfor retailers to reduce the cost ofprice matching is to refund thedifference in the form of usefulhigh-margin accessories. Theconsumer gets the same dollarvalue in goods, but the retaileronly loses his cost. If I paymore than I have to for a guitar,I would be equally happy with receivingthe difference in strings.“It’s up to you—advertisers andsalespeople—toreverse the consumerpredisposition bytreating themwith respect.”Ultimately, I blame consumermentality for most of the dailydifficulties that “service”-orientedretailers face. However,consumers didn’t cause theirmentality; a lack of sales integritydid. Therefore, it’s up toyou—advertisers and salespeople—toreverse the consumerpredisposition by treating themwith respect. Only then willconsumers pay you back at yourregister…again and again.Ravi (www.HeyRavi.com) toursthe country performing originalmusic, conducting productclinics, and lecturing on themusic industry. With professionalendorsements and business savvy,the former guitarist of three-timeGrammy-nominee Hanson has releasedtwo albums independently.His autobiography is published bySimon & Schuster.<strong>Music</strong> & <strong>Sound</strong> <strong>Retailer</strong> 37